A bit more than a year ago, Lloyd wrote about how palm oil is in everything and since then more and more voices have detailed just how environmentally devastating the Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil trade has become. What's more, according to The Independent palm oil may be in many common food items you buy, and you may not even know it:Writing about brands in the UK (many of which at multi-national brands, so it's probably not a stretch to at least roughly apply these numbers elsewhere), it had been assumed that about 1 in 10 products contained palm oil, often thrown in under the catchall term 'vegetable oil'.

About 40% of UK Grocery Brands Contain Palm OilHowever the Independent says that after a two month investigation it has found palm oil to be far more prevalent than thought:

We can reveal for the first time that it is confirmed or suspected in 43 of Britain's 100 bestselling grocery brands (see box, right), representing £6bn of the UK's £16bn annual shopping basket for top brands. If you strip out drinks, pet food and household goods, the picture is starker still: 32 out of 62 of Britain's top foods contain this tree-felling, wildlife-wrecking ingredient.

It's in the top three loaves – Warburtons, Hovis, and Kingsmill – and the bestselling margarines Flora and Clover. It's in Special K, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Mr Kipling Cakes, McVitie's Digestives and Goodfella's pizza. It's in KitKat, Galaxy, Dairy Milk and Wrigley's chewing gum. It's in Persil washing powder, Comfort fabric softener and Dove soap. It's also in plenty of famous brands that aren't in the top 100, such as Milkybar, Jordan's Country Crisp and Utterly Butterly. And it's almost certainly in thousands of supermarket own brands. Yet none of these manufacturers can prove their supply is "sustainable".

No One Buying Sustainable Palm OilThe big thing though is this: There are more sustainable methods of growing palm oil, and quantities of it are being produced, but very few companies are actually buying it. It is about 35% more expensive than regular palm oil, but personally that seems like a small price to pay for the preservation of one of the most rich ecosystems on the planet.

Without consumers speaking out, and activists holding government accountable and raising awareness more broadly, global demand for palm oil is going to turn the majority of Borneo from a biodiversity hotspot into an ecological desert.